“The game changer.” That is how Guyana’s Minister of Natural Resources Vickram Bharrat has described that country’s gas to energy project.
“Our biggest problem in Guyana has always been power generation the cost of power generation and the reliability of power generation so what we are doing now is bringing gas to shore,” Bharrat told the Business Guardian.
Bharrat said that an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the 300 megawatts (MW) combined cycle power plant and Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) facility for the gas-to-energy project has already been signed. The contract is reported to be US$759 million.
“We are guaranteed 50 million cubic of gas per day which is sufficient for the 300 MW plant but we went with a 12-inch pipe so we could fill that pipeline eventually moving up from 50 million to maybe 130 million at some point in time in the future where we can focus more on petchem and maybe fertiliser production,” Bharrat said.
“But now we are focusing more on power generation because that is a big issue for us,” he said.
The power plant is scheduled to be in operation by the end of next year.
“We know that it will cut the cost of power generation in Guyana by 50 per cent so that is a direct relief for every single Guyanese it will give us reliable power, there will be no power failure and in the context of climate change and will cut our emissions for power generation by 70 per cent,” he said.
Bharrat said Guyana also intends to review and evaluate bids for an oil refinery.
“We went out with RFPs for about two to three months ago and we have nine proposals so we are starting the evaluation process soon so we are looking to have that evaluation soon and have a contract signed so work will start in that it will go to Berbice Region 6 in Guyana and we have already set a time frame we want it done in two years for 30,000 barrels a day,” Bharrat said.
“It is an exciting period, it a period that all Guyanese can look forward to because we have made a commitment as a government that we will use this review to ensure that every single Guyanese benefits,” he said.
Bharrat said the goal is to use Guyana’s burgeoning industry to fund and develop other areas.
Guyana, he believes, will play a significant role if Caricom is to achieve its 2025 goal for agriculture.
Guyana will also develop its eco-tourism, Bharrat said.
British Airways has already committed to entering Guyana in March and a few other airlines are expected to come from the Unites States and Canada. Airlines in the Middle East have also been approached.
“Our manufacturing sector will also take off after the gas-to-energy project comes online,” Bharrat said.
Guyana has become a major player in fossil fuels as the world is aiming to transition to cleaner energy.
Bharrat said while this is challenging, it is a one that Guyana is up to.
Guyana is a carbon-negative country, one of the few carbon-negative countries in the world.
“We have what we call the Low Carbon Development Strategy 2030. This basically speaks to the preservation of our forest and bio diversity the new LCDS has extended not only to the green economy but also the blue economy,” Bharrat said.
“While we are forging ahead with development in the oil and gas sector, while we intend to continue to doing mining and logging in a sustainable responsible manner moving more toward value-added, we are serious about the preservation of our environment, we are serious about keeping our forest intact,” he said.
Bharrat said 86 per cent of Guyana is covered by forest and is one of the few countries in the world that has over 90 per cent virgin forest standing.
Guyana recently made a historic milestone becoming the first country to get issued carbon credits under the new high-integrity carbon standard Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART).
Guyana was issued 33.47 million forest carbon credits for preventing and reducing deforestation and forest degradation in the period 2016-2020.
“We have certified our carbon credit as high integrity credits and we would have signed a deal with Hess corporation for US$750 million for 30 per cent of our carbon credits,” Bharrat said.
“That by itself shows a commitment by the country to ensure that we maintain our forest it is worth more alive and dead and to keep our deforestation rate down. In our Low Carbon Development Strategy it speaks to a 0.07 per cent deforestation rate.
“Our deforestation rate is presently 0.045 per cent probably one of the lowest deforestation rates in the world,” he said.
“We have demonstrated that we are willing to keep our forest intact but in our LCDS what we are saying to the world too is that while we are willing to keep our forest in tact we must be compensated in some way or another because our indigenous communities and our people depend on the forest for their livelihood too so if we are going to keep that forest in tact then we need to be compensated to ensure that there is an alternative livelihood for our people, especially our indigenous people, hence the sale of our carbon credits,” Bharrat said.
Bharrat said Guyana was also making moves with respect to renewables.
Guyana is also going to develop the Amaila Falls Hydropower Project which will give 165 megawatts of power, Bharrat said.
Guyana’s population is spread out in all ten regions with the indigenous living in the interior.
“It is basically very difficult and expensive to set up infrastructure in the hinterland regions to feed our people off the national grid so what we are doing is to set up stand-alone solar farms in those areas so we are developing solar farms and that should be 33 MW so while we are producing oil and we will continue mining and logging and while we are still moving toward cutting emissions further. Sometime in the future we will move toward wind,” Bharrat said.
In the recently-concluded Budget presentation, it was also announced that Guyanese citizens will be given special concessions to import electric vehicles.
“At some point in time transportation will probably be our biggest emitter so we are starting to address that now,” he said.